Real men wear kilts: Studies abound on how temperature impacts sperm production

A recent piece in the Scottish Medical Journal, titled Real Men Wear Kilts, is raising eyebrows — if not kilts — around the world, but the real message for men is: Be nice to your sperm.Photo by
Chris Jackson

Putting a cheeky and provocative title like Real Men Wear Kilts on a journal article ensures it will be widely read and commented upon, even if it isn’t the gold standard of medical research — an original, double-blind, controlled study. So a recent piece in the Scottish Medical Journal is raising eyebrows if not kilts around the world.

In a nutshell, Erwin JO Kompanje of the Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, argues that wearing a kilt in the regimental fashion (without underwear) likely produces an ideal physiological scrotal environment, which in turn helps maintain normal scrotal temperature, which is known to be beneficial for robust spermatogenesis and good sperm quality.

Kompanje laments the decrease in kilt wearing among Scottish lads, saying that it is now relegated to ceremonial occasions and that there are only few young men in Scotland who wear the kilt on a daily basis. Presumably they work in stores that sell them to tourists. He even ventures into the psychological domain, writing that research indicates that men wearing a kilt experience a strong sense of freedom and masculinity and that many women are attracted to men in kilts.

It’s important to note that Kompanje didn’t actually run around sticking thermometers under kilts. He formed his arguments from Scottish folklore and the general principle that heat is bad for sperm production, which it certainly is.

Other studies have actually brought out the thermometers. One, in the Journal of Urology, found that the mean scrotal temperature in those wearing briefs were actually lower, 33.6 °C, than those sporting boxers who clocked in at 33.8 °C. Robert Munkelwitz and his colleagues concluded that it is unlikely that underwear type has a significant effect on male fertility, which seems to settle the boxers vs. briefs vs. kilts debate once and for all.

Yet a new culprit has come on the scene to threaten our testicles. Laptop computers. The more powerful they get, the more heat they tend to generate. A 30-year-old U.K. man was told by doctors that he was cooking his sperm by sitting all night with his laptop on his lap.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr. Reed started using his laptop on a table instead and three months later Mrs. Reed became pregnant with baby daughter Taryn. Also anecdotal, but interesting.

A 2012 study from Argentina adds another culprit, using WiFi connections. In what sounds like it would have made a fun science fair project, researchers in Argentina divided sperm samples into two batches. One was exposed to WiFi from a laptop computer for four hours, and afterwards those sperm were significantly worse at swimming

and showed more DNA fragmentation. The researchers claimed this was independent of any thermal effect.

Their conclusion — “we speculate that keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility”— has been disputed by other researchers who argue that watching sperm swim in glass tubes is not the same as studying the complicated biology of the human reproductive system.

More research will undoubtedly follow, but for now the simplest plan is to just put your laptop on a table.

Taking hot baths have been a form of folklore birth control for years, and now of course we have hot tubs and saunas to think about too. A study from Finland, where they really know their saunas, showed that being in one for 15 minutes caused a three-degree rise in scrotal temperature. Since the testes like to be about two degrees cooler than body temperature, this can have an adverse effect on sperm production.

Other factors that have been shown to lower sperm quality include excessive bike riding, smoking (anything,) drinking alcohol, sedentary lifestyle, and bad diet. There’s some evidence that vegetarians might want to use protein supplements to beef up their sperm-making. The best news is that ejaculating every day seems to ensure that your sperm are fresh, and it’s hard to be opposed to that.

Of course this line of research is primarily of interest to men who are seeking to become daddies. Yet regardless of age or intention, having good sperm quality is an important part of healthy manhood. In addition, we’re learning that sperm are not just specialized delivery capsules for a precious cargo of 23 chromosomes. They even have some subtle functions in the development of the embryo.

As Douglas Carrell writes in a Fertility and Sterility journal article called Epigenetics of the Male Gamete, some studies, and numerous anecdotal observations, have hinted at a potential role of sperm contribution to embryogenesis. So the job of those hardworking little fellas is not over when one has successfully penetrated the egg, as we were taught in high school. Be nice to them.

Dr. Tom Keenan is an award-winning journalist, public speaker, and professor in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary.

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